Chocolate cake

I love chocolate cake...umm.. so rich and indulgent.
I made a simple birthday card for a good friend of mine whose birthday is on the weekend. I will also try to bake a chocolate cake to go with the card. I'll keep you posted on how the cake turns out.

The cake is coloured with promarkers and embellished with glitter glue and glossy accents. Simple almost one layer card! I wanted the cake to be the focus - no detraction from the background.
I am entering this card in the daring cardmakers chocolate challenge. http://daringcardmakers.blogspot.co.uk/2013/02/hot-chocolate.html

I must read some tips on how to take good photos for the blog .. with no shadows.

cards, buttons and thoughts: Poppies

cards, buttons and thoughts: Poppies

http://craftycardmakers.blogspot.co.uk/2013/02/challenge-85-blooming-images.html

Poppies

I got this paper pad of English country flowers free with a craft magazine a while ago. I'm not into all things country but the images were beautiful , so kept hold of them.  I had a burst of inspiration on seeing them recently and used them to make these simple cards. They are so cheerful and remind me of  spring/summer in the recent cold weather. The paper was cut and matted and layered on gatefold card blanks. I went over the flowers with some colour pencils to make the colours pop. A simple sentiment attached... easy peasy quick cards. There were enough papers to use them inside the card too!

 I am entering this card in the crafty cardmakers challenge which calls for blooming images.
http://craftycardmakers.blogspot.co.uk/2013/02/challenge-85-blooming-images.html

All white

I love white . But an all white card.... is hard! Let me rise to the challenge at http://simonsaysstampschallenge.blogspot.co.uk/

Here is my entry. Those were silver sequins at the centre of the flowers. Doesn't look like silver in the photos!

Flying High

One of my good friends has won a prestigious innovation award for her work. I was thinking of making her a well done card when I saw the " up in the air " challenge on LIM.

I was looking through my stash when I found this stamp and the inspiration for the card came from one of the 12 x 12" papers I have. The Wright brothers' invention led to the development of aircraft as a means of travel. It fits the card and my friend's achievement aptly. Hope she likes it.

The background was made from brushing ink from ink pads. The grassy slopes and clouds were cut out and stuck on. The tree was stamped. The Wright glider plane was stamped and embossed and cut out and stuck with silicone glue to give it dimension. I'm entering this card in the LIM challenge.
http://simplylessismoore.blogspot.co.uk/2013/02/week-107-up-in-air.html

Red velvet cake

Red velvet sheet cake .... sounds enticing and all the pictures on the web were too. So I decided to try to make one.
Pioneer woman http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2011/04/red-velvet-sheet-cake/ has a recipe which a lot of other bloggers recommend , so I decided to follow hers. And I liked her idea of a sheet cake and measurements in cups.

But first I had to get a sheet cake pan ( 13 x 9 " ) though technically this is a quarter sheet size. The sizes apparently come from bakeries which use varying sizes to get a particular number of 2"x2" servings. Got a really sturdy Wilton pan on Amazon. It looked huge and I wondered what to do with such a big cake ... maybe take some into work.

I had already sourced all the ingredients including buttermilk which I found in Waitrose.

It looked very reddd...

I used plain flour and butter instead of shortening. I used traditional buttercream icing as I wanted to finish the job quickly.
Maybe next time I'll try the flour paste icing.

 The kids and hubby loved it.  It is the softest cake I have ever made. Agreed I am no great baker.
I  don't need to wonder what to do with it. It was so yummy they forbid me to take any to work!

Space invaders

I have been making birthday cards for my kids for the last three years and they love their personalised cards.
My eldest loves maths, robots and computer games like a lot of boys.
I made a space invader pop up card for his birthday. I found this tutorial on extreme cards which made the whole thing a doodle.
http://extremecards.blogspot.co.uk/2010/08/space-invader-pop-up-tutorial.html

 




I found the free alien font and space invader font on the web and coloured the aliens with colour pencils.   Boy he was chuffed to bits!

I found a space invader alarm clock in alien green on amazon for his present and he was thrilled with it.

Majestic alliums

Every time I see the garden shows on TV in the summer, I find the impressive alliums awesome! I would love to plant some in my garden if I can get the soil sorted.

I had these Marion Emberson Stamps for a while now. I just love these thistles and grasses. 

I used some lovely colours - cyan and lavender cat's eye pigment ink pads.  I can imagine they will look lovely in monochrome as well.

The SCACD corner dies I got from a craft show at Alexandra Palace last year. The are so delicate but cut so well. No sticking of little bits! 

I loved these images so much that I had to make another card. All it needs is a sentiment.

Sweetheart...

This is my first entry to a card challenge .
http://simplylessismoore.blogspot.co.uk/2013/02/happy-2nd-birthday-less-is-more.html?m=1

The theme is cream and kraft . I love the simple layouts of the cards submitted for the LIM challenges.
Here is what I came up with.

Kraft card embossed with swiss dots embossing folder. Little flowers punched out and arranged in a heart shape - used silicone glue to add dimension.

 The sentiment is handwritten and embossed.  Wasn't happy with any of the stamps I have in my stash.
I need to get some more sentiment stamps.


Hmm... Some silicone glue still showing . It doesn't show as much in reality but photos exaggerate every defect! I have to learn to be more careful and clean hands in between steps.

What do I do with the card now?  I wonder at the possibilities ....

I am going to make a cake now. Will post some pictures of it if it comes out all  right.

One layer card inspiration

I was looking at some crafty blogs and saw this http://simplylessismoore.blogspot.co.uk/2013/01/week-104-sketch.html  One Layer Card challenge for which people had made all these lovely cards. So as I was looking through my craft stash I had this sudden flash .. to use the sketch to make a one layer card.

I ended up making two. Stamped the image with Momento black ink - repeated two and a half times to get this strip effect. The sentiment was a bit of a let down. I meant to emboss it but the pigment ink I used did not take up the embossing powder at all! 

Coloured in the bottles using brush marker pens and applied glossy accents to some bottles. Coloured the swirly ribbons using Sakura gel pens.

I think they look cool .. for adults or kids . Good to have a stash of birthday cards to use in a hurry. Especially with all the birthdays from school friends of my boys.

Wedding Bells are ringing

My sister is getting married ... in the summer.
I  am sooooo happy for her. She deserves a lot of happiness ... Everyone does ..but she especially so .. So I made a card for her to wish her happiness.

 I got this lovely embossing folder two weeks ago and had to use it! A lovely geometric pattern and so effective. The hearts are cut using sizzix dies. I used some red textured papers which I got from Create and Craft ages ago.

I used the "negatives " of the die cuts to colour in identical hearts on the inside of the card. I sponged using Barn Door Distress inks. A simple sentiment matted and layered using circle punches.

I hope she likes it.

New Year , New Ventures

Hello and welcome to my blog!
I have wanted to do this for sometime ....
To record the cards I make, or any thing else creative and pen my thoughts while I am at it.

Here is a card I made for a good friend who's been feeling under the weather. I had these lovely papers which I cut up to decoupage them and added a little Stickles glitter glue to the centre of the flower heads.

I went around the edge of the card with a pigment ink pad - I think the green edge brings out the mounted flowers . 

A little sentiment to cheer her - stamped directly and embossed to keep it simple. I didn't want the sentiment to be overwhelming and compete with the lovely flowers.

The inside of the card - some matching coloured papers and another flower with a stamped sentiment. It reached France in just one day!

My friend messaged she was " cheered up ".
So it worked !